Music is a universal metaphorical language capable of communicating moods, emotions and other artistic sentiments to listeners. Heretofore it has been impossible to use the immediate reaction of a listener to aid the music composition process. Instead, in order to understand the elements of a musical selection that are capable of evoking emotional reactions in a listener, a person interested in composing music would have to have talent or genius, or learn music theory, a complex and lengthy endeavor.
Prior art computer-based music composition tools that attempt to assist the composition process have generally suffered from this limitation, i.e., they require a user to have talent or a substantial knowledge of music theory, and therefore are of limited use to those interested in composing music but who have neither the skill, time nor inclination to study music theory.
These prior art devices fall into the following categories, and exhibit the described limitations.
Sequencers
Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) sequencers such as Vision from Opcode Inc., Cubase from Steinberg, or Logic from Emagic, facilitate recording musical elements in digital form, and combining them into musical passages and entire pieces. However, such sequencers are limited in that the user is required to fully specify all musical parameters such as rhythm, harmony, melody, and orchestration without any help from the program.
Computer Aided Composition
Programs for algorithmic composition such as Symbolic Composer from Tonality Systems, Common Music Mode from H. Taube, Mode from Stephen Travis Pope, and DMix from IBM Corporation, contain routines for the production of musical elements using, for example, logic, mathematical formulas, grammars, probabilities, and artificial intelligence (Al) techniques like neural networks. These programs may not require a complete specification of all musical parameters, but still require the user to possess, a knowledge of music theory and also often require computer programming skills.
DMix, from IBM Corporation, allows composers to create a set of "what if" musical sketches, and the equivalent of "macros" to accelerate their compositional process. DMix produces erudite, mathematical-sounding music, and the tools can be difficult to control.
EMI, or Experiments in Musical Intelligence, developed by Dr. David Cope, scans pieces of works by famous composers and is then able to create imitations of their work. EMI has been used to create compositions in the styles of Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Mozart, and Stravinsky. The approach of EMI is rule-based and uses pattern-recognition algorithms. This tends to create music which sounds stiff and often nonsensical, with oddly-formed melodies and harmonies. In order to achieve acceptable results, one must have detailed knowledge of musical theory.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,663,517, issued Sep. 2, 1997 to D. V. Oppenheim, for "Interactive System for Compositional Morphing of Music in Real-Time", describes a technique of musical morphing to generate a mutation from one musical piece to another. Oppenheim is limited to a system that identifies paired sets of elements from each of a first and second musical sequence, grouping the paired sets, and assigning morphing and transformation factors to generate a parameter for a new event. Thus, the technique of Oppenheim is relatively limited and inflexible, as it can only generate "morphs" that result from identified paired sets of elements.
Music Authoring Programs
A third group of programs such as Blue Ribbon from Microsoft, and Band-in-a-Box from PG Music, can create music based on non-technical requirements supplied by a musically naive user, but the output of these programs tends to sound mechanical and lack musical depth.
Band-in-a-Box merely offers a finite number of riffs, and tends to produce music which is repetitive. The program generates accompaniments, harmonies, and solos in a variety of styles, once the user has entered specific chords. Thus, the user must have a good understanding of music, and enter the chords him- or herself.
Koan Pro 2, from SSEYO, allows a user to input data representing a musical theme, and repeats the input, slowly changing it over time. Output music is generated from a series of rules which make the program very difficult to control. The results tend to be mechanical sounding. Moreover, this product requires the user to have compositional skill in balancing the rules and parameters needed to create music.
Song Construction Kit, from The Sound Factory, lets users build songs by pasting and mixing fragments of digital audio. Users can select from several musical styles such as rock, rap, grunge, dance, blues, country, funk, and generic pop. However, the implementation is limited, and it is extremely difficult to create any kind of chord progression.
Some programs which enable non-musicians to create original musical works, such as the Microsoft.RTM. Music Producer from Microsoft Corporation, rely on non-musical adjectives to describe various aspects of the music. For instance, the user might use terms like "happy," "aggressive," "hypnotic," or "perky" to describe harmonic and rhythmic elements. But using adjectives to determine musical elements lead, toward simplistic-sounding music, since what often gives music a particular character is the combination of elements which may or may not share the characteristics of the overall piece. A particular harmonic combination of some "happy" bass line and some "optimistic" piano part might add up to a bitter-sweet musical surface. A slow, heavy drum part might actually sound more aggressive in certain contexts than a fast aggressively-played drum part. Finding adjectives to describe these indirect modes of expression is often impractical or even impossible.
What is needed is a music composition tool which is usable by a musically untutored user in creating original musical works, and which overcomes the above-stated limitations of the prior art.